No Polish team is listed so far - reminds on Italian approach, to omit the lower competitions and play just CL (Impel WROCLAW=Breslau were set for it, and this time even Tauron MKS DABROWA GORNICZA didn't want that berth it seems).

Under these circumstances both German teams Stuttgart and Dresden, eligible to take part in CL qualification but decided both against it, are the next best teams IMHO, the two teams of France and Romania should be also not too bad, I think. But I guess, the DOL will be carried out to guarantee the possibility of the favorites only semis with the Turkish, Russian and both Italian top teams alone. I think, no too strong team from CL will come down to disturb the four mentioned best teams either...

This cup is becoming a joke like Challenge cup. CEV should see that It is useless to have two cups besides CL, they should fuse both CEV Cup and Challenge Cup and let more Turkish, Italian and Russian teams play

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "serdar" (Jun 13th 2017, 7:53pm)

This cup is becoming a joke like Challenge cup. CEV should see that It is useless to have two cups besides CL, they should fuse both CEV Cup and Challenge Cup and let more Turkish, Italian and Russian teams play

I don't agree at all. Ok CEV and Challenge level is far lower than CL but I think there's more volleyball than TUR, RUS and ITA (even POL, GER, AZE) and minor leagues should have chance to compete against teams from other countries with similar level. If they want more ITA, RUS and TUR they should be in CL, because of their level (and economic posibilities) not in CEV/Challenge.

This cup is becoming a joke like Challenge cup. CEV should see that It is useless to have two cups besides CL, they should fuse both CEV Cup and Challenge Cup and let more Turkish, Italian and Russian teams play

I don't agree at all. Ok CEV and Challenge level is far lower than CL but I think there's more volleyball than TUR, RUS and ITA (even POL, GER, AZE) and minor leagues should have chance to compete against teams from other countries with similar level. If they want more ITA, RUS and TUR they should be in CL, because of their level (and economic posibilities) not in CEV/Challenge.

Yes, for example for fifth best league, the German Bundesliga, the CEV cup is the only one that makes sense currently to take part in, which is agreed by Stuttgart, Dresden and Schwerin obviously. Bad luck for Schwerin (or the right fine, it is in the eye of the beholder) is, they have to play Challenge cup, despite they wanted CEV cup too, because there were enough applications for CEV cup to fill the 22 slots alongside with the 10 teams not making it to CL group phase.

Schwerin is in the quarter of Casalamaggiore, the last are set at position 3 also in upper half with Eczacibasi (would collide in semis therefore), SSC Schwerin was in the last 24 hours unexpectedly upgraded from Challenge cup herein though.

The lower half is reigned by second seed Uralochka EKATERINBURG (RUS), but the third quarter sees the two seeded as fourth (formally third) German Bundesliga teams of Stuttgart and Dresden, they should play gainst each other in quarters therefore. The winner will get Bronze medal for this competition (Dresden has already one of this, Stuttgart not yet: motivation?), but has to play semis against Russian / Sibirian team mentioned...

After all losers from CL qualification came into this competition and all leages are running (but Azeri?), we can draw some preliminary conclusions about favourites for victory, finals, semis and quarters I guess, considering only teams with a generally decent level here:

the default winner of the competition is clearly Eczacibasi VitrA Istanbul. They are definitely the strongest team leading all competitors with a wide margin. The first round for them is a joke (Belgium league second place Oudegem), but the second round they have to warm up fighting for sure against the forth team of Italian championship Busto Arsizio, a several times CL medal winner (one silver, one bronze). Also they don't expect an easy win in quarters, where Krasnoyarsk (bailed out surprisingly by Maritza Plovdiv) should be their opponent. Funnily, there are no teams as strong as before to expect there, because Pomì Casalmaggiore is far from being on the level of the last years and even Schwerin (which has no easy matches before against Le Cannet and Yuzhny (Ukrainian all-time champions)) might defeat them and become semi finalist.

The lower half begins interesting: because Ekaterinburg is playing an unusual bad season so far in Russian superleague, I see the top-seed team of this half in danger already in first round against CSM Bukarest, who is currently topping the table in Romania and should never be underestimated - I remind to their sensational victory in Challenge cup some years ago against Turkisch favourite Bursa.

Opponents in quarters for that winner are hard to judge (they have to win against Salo before anyway), it might be Béziers or Minsk. The last quarter (still lower half) should be Stuttgart vs. Dresden with a slight advantage for Stuttgart IMHO (for example, they will have the return match).

Which team will be finalist from lower half will be really interesting, it can't be predicted seriously, I think.

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "StefanS" (Nov 21st 2017, 3:45pm)

Clearly a big disappointment by CSM Bukarest - I expected them to exert much more resistance against Ekaterinburg at home.

The only thing remarkable otherwise I think is the close two sets of Busto Arsizio at home in Pala Yamamy against underdog Brcko, despite they won in 3 sets.

Bukarest was disappointing to me as well, they have a nice roster actually and there are more good players next to Brakocevic but they won't get anywhere with this coach. He didn't even play with Jovana as a starter even though she clearly was ready for it and much better then the alternative. Getting a big player as Jovana as a key factor to beat Ekaterinburg and then only barely using her.

From a German point of view successful start in the competition: easy win for Stuttgart in Olomouc (Olmütz), also for Dresden against French cup winner Pays d'Aix Venelles (in front of some 2,600 spectators) and even Schwerin did it in four against a more difficult opponent (Rocheville LE CANNET) also from France.

I think there were generally no real surprises today. We will politely not comment about Eczacibasi vs. OUDEGEM (Belgium), this one was pretty unfair from the beginning.

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "StefanS" (Dec 14th 2017, 6:37am)